The worst director in the world, Michael Bay, was quoted on imdb.com saying that the upcoming “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” will be his last Transformers movie because he has “had enough” of making big budget blockbusters. Bay directed the 2007 original film and also directed this summer’s sequel.
There has always been rumor that Bay wanted his cake and eat it too, in being angry that he gets bad reviews for his bombastic, nonsensical, special effects fests – films with no discernable real human emotion, human conflict, or even real characters. Bay was again quoted as being sick of receiving negative reviews from critics who dislike his movie-making style. He is now determined to move away from the genre. “It’s easy to go shoot an art movie in a winery in the South of France. But people have no idea how hard it is to create something like Transformers. They (the critics) review me before they’ve even seen the movie,” said Bay. “I need to do something totally divergent, something without any explosions.”
I admit that I cringe whenever I hear that Michael Bay is involved with a film, but most of the time, I’m able to avoid it entirely, but I think that, once again, Bay is blaming the medium and the culture instead of the real culprit. Over the past few years, we have seen films like “The Dark Knight,” “Watchmen,” “Hellboy II,” “The International,” “Taken,” “Wanted,” and “300,” I think that the action genre is alive and well, and considering that many of the films I’ve listed and others in the “action/effects/sci fi” genre DO earn big money and still get positive reviews. Perhaps it’s what I’ve claimed for years, Mr. Bay: you’re a talent-less hack.
There are two guaranteed ways for you to never get another bad review. The first, of course, is to never make another film again. The other is a lot harder – try making a film that doesn’t suck. You know: have a good, well-written script, with plot and characters grounded in reality, not in the Hollywood version of “reality.” Don’t pander to the 12-year-old boy in the audience or to the focus group – have something vital to say, and film it. Then, people like myself and the critics may give you a break.
But that’s hard; stick with the easy solution – quit.

Making the last pitch to the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland yesterday, the Chicago 2016 contingent made a commitment that Mayor Richard Daley said would not be necessary – a full governmental guarantee to cover any losses incurred by the Games. Up to now, it was supposed to be a joint venture of local government and the private sector, but, according to Pat Ryan and the rest of the committee, Chicago’s bid would lose automatically without the guarantee. The other remaining bids: Rio, Tokyo, reportedly have full governmental guarantees.
I don’t support the bid; I believe we can spend the money in better ways, and I don’t want to suffer through the years of construction delays on roads and various other impositions to support three weeks of intense security and a traditionally money-losing proposition. Now, however, Daley, Ryan and the others have put us, the taxpayers, on the line much more than we were supposed to be for a Daley pipedream.
I just wonder how many of Daley’s relatives are sucking at the trough on the bidding process and are licking their chops at the billions that will be spent if we get the bid for the construction? Giving the Olympics to the most corrupt local and state governments in the country is foolish. If we get the Games, they’ll lose money; taxpayers will pay for useless buildings instead of providing funding for education, mass transit, and so many other services; and 5 years after the Games, the lawyers will be still making money as we drag more and more of Daley family members, cronies, and sycophants before juries on corruption charges.

You know that I think that PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have gone completely “round the bend” don’t you? I think I have finally come across the reason: these people have seen entirely too many Disney movies; giving every species on the planet, from the smallest amoeba to the largest blue whale anthropomorphism, which is, the attribution of uniquely human characteristics to non-human creatures and beings, natural and supernatural phenomena, material states and objects or abstract concepts (Wikipedia).
This time, PETA is upset that President Obama swatted a fly during a television interview. According to the Huffington Post: during an interview for CNBC with correspondent John Harwood, a fly was buzzing around. “Get out of here,” the president told the pesky insect. When it didn’t, he waited for the fly to settle, put his hand up and then smacked it dead. “Now, where were we?” Obama asked Harwood. Then he added: “That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it? I got the sucker.”
PETA is sending the president a “Humane Bug Catcher,” a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside. Spokesperson for the nutcases, Bruce Friedrich said “We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals. We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.”
Folks, it was a f@#%ing FLY. A dung eating, maggot breading, filthy insect; they have no “useful” purpose unless you count spreading disease. I do believe, however, that they should be left alone when outside and not buzzing around trying to sample my lunch. But, when one gets into my house, the newspaper gets rolled up, and I try to “get the sucker.” That’s not going to change, not matter what these ridiculous people say.
Fortunately for the free world, deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said the White House had no comment on the matter.

Back when I worked at Wrigley Field, we were aware of occasional “fraternization” between the players and some of the usherettes and other women that worked at the park. Most of the women were VERY young, but sometimes, dalliances did occur. One of the players who hit on the girls was Mel Hall. Hall played 13 years in the majors, hitting .276 with 134 home runs and 620 RBIs in a career that included stints with the Cubs, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants as well as playing four years in Japan.
I remember that there was a very attractive young African-American girl who was an usher in the early 1980s (I don’t remember her name), and Hall, in his first full year with the big club in 1983, was like hungry flies on fresh crap on this young lady. Ordinarily, I would have been creeped out, but at that time, Hall was 22 years old and, if I remember correctly, the usherette was of legal age, so, as usher supervisor, it was really none of my business. I don’t know what if anything happened between them, and Hall left Chicago.
Now, Hall has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after being convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl he coached on an elite basketball team. Hall was convicted on three counts of aggravated sexual assault and two counts of indecency with a child. He must serve about 22½ years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.
The victim testified that she was 14 when Hall touched her inappropriately and told her he wanted to have sex with her. The day before this startling testimony, two other women testified Hall sexually assaulted them when they were underage. They testified that Hall won their parents’ trust and then charmed the young girls. One said she was 15 and Hall was in his first season with the New York Yankees when the abuse began in 1989. The other testified that she was a 14-year-old basketball teammate of the 12-year-old victim when she was raped in 1999. Hall faces more charges in that case.
Obviously, this is a sad case of a former athlete, who, I think, never could leave the side of the sports business where he was young, rich, and there were tons of available women to choose from. But he doesn’t want women his own age; or even women of legal age who may make reasonable demands for his time attention, and yes, money. So, he was having unlawful congress with young girls and now, he is going to prison. A very sad story, especially for the young women he preyed upon.

Before we begin, yes, I’m VERY happy that the Penguins defeated the Red wings Friday night to win the franchise’s third Stanley Cup. The evil empire was defeated, let’s all party with Luke Skywalker.
That’s not to say that the Penguins were the best team, especially after losing captain Sidney Crosby to injury after a check in the third period. But the Red Wings knew they were the best team, were 11-1 at home in the playoffs and had not lost to the Penguins at home since last season’s finals series. That was the end.
After game analysis focused on the Wings being tired, which is the reason they lost four of the last five games, but with 2-3 days between games (except for the weekend games 1-2 and 3 and 4, which required no travel) that’s no excuse. And while the Wings are a veteran team, except for Chris “I played with Toe Blake” Chelios, they aren’t an especially old team.
No, the Red Wings thought that, with the 5-0 shellacking they gave the Penguins at home in Game 5 that the series was over. Yes, the Penguins were able to hold off the Wings at home in three gutsy 1-goal victories, but at home, with the octopi flying, they thought that they could coast, turn on the offence and wait for Marc-Andre Fleury to give up the goals.
Except, he came up big, stopped the shots that did get through while the defense kept the Wings from pelting Fleury with 40-50 shots (they finished with 24 shots). It should be said that the Red Wings came out so flat that it took Chris Osgood standing on his head to keep the home team from being down 4 or 5 to nothing. Coming into the playoffs, everyone said that the Wings Achilles’ Heel was its goaltending, but Osgood was a rock through every playoff series. They could not have gotten as far as they did without him.
So, the Red Wings tried their patented surge in the final period, and if the shot doesn’t hit the crossbar in the waning moments of the third period, the Wings may have hoisted the Cup after all. Instead, it clangs off and sails away, and Fleury stops a point blank shot with 1 second left, and it’s all over.
Two final points: first, the Wings were upset because Crosby was late for the hand shaking ceremony at the end of the game. Nothing was meant, but as a 21-year-old kid, he was still celebrating – this is just more sour grapes from the Red Wings.
Second, the true goat of the series is Marian Hossa, who played for Pittsburgh last season, but turned down a lucrative contract to remain in Pittsburgh, but he took less money for a 1-year contract with Detroit, figuring he had a better chance at a championship. It turns out that Hossa went scoreless in the Finals, and if I had run the Penguins, I would have had Hossa bound up with his eyes forced open like Malcolm McDowell’s character in “A Clockwork Orange” and forced him to watch the Cup ceremony. Maybe they know where he lives, so that when the players get their day with the Cup (a cool tradition, by the way), they could take it over to his house to remind him what he gave up and how he insulted the team. But that’s me, and I’m a vindictive sort.
My old friend Rick Telander wrote a week or so ago asking how anyone could root against the Red Wings considering all of the problems that have befell Detroit. Rick, I can and did, and I can say that it couldn’t have happened to a better team or city.

Let this be an open note to all those who work for, or preferably run, non-for-profit institutions: You are cutting off your noses to spite your faces in terms of giving.
We all know that we are in the middle of a worldwide economic recession the likes of which not seen in decades. We also know that as times get hard, unemployment increases; giving to charities decline, so there are fewer dollars and the non-for-profits are fighting for fewer dollars and they have to “ratchet up” their efforts. However, you can go too far; making people not want to give you money.
My example: The Indignant Wife has long been a supporter of one charity that combats birth defects to children. As parents to two young girls (so far) lucky in not having significant problems, we have supported this charity annually, and we just did so a month or so ago.
The charity sent us a packet of address labels and a note pad as a thank you. But on the top of it, there was a cover letter that thanked us, but at the end of it is says: “Can we count on a special added gift today? Thanks so much.” All of this was in bold letters.
Now, we just gave you money. I hope that the charity hasn’t spent all of it yet, but even if it did, you have my money; taking the very first opportunity to ask me for more money makes me angry and makes me not want to give you any money in the future.
As a good “bleeding heart liberal” I support many causes, but they all annoy me with their almost constant begging. Ninety-nine percent of these letters go into my shred/recycle pile. If many of these non-for-profits would spend less of my money on begging for MORE money, they would have more funds to provide services. And the liberal causes are among the worst; I am constantly getting letters “from” current and former politicians and actors/activists like President Jimmy Carter, Rep. Joseph Kennedy, John Grisham and others. Since these letters are nothing more than bold face begging, they don’t get read – straight into the shredder (at least I’m being environmentally conscious with my crap mail).
I have an idea: if you receive money from a donor, give them 6-8 months “off,” that is, without soliciting them again. Give us a break; give the mail carriers a break; help the environment by not sending us so much paper!!! Maybe, over the long haul, you might get more donations from those who already support you?

There is a saying that with every change, there is a violent upheaval, like the birth of a child. And nowhere in all the world is change more evident than these United States: there’s a multiracial President; many of the old standards that many assumed would last forever are gone or very weak – GM, Bear Stearns, Chrysler, and so many others. It’s enough to make the “good ‘ole boys and gals” prdeominently white, evangelical, and less educated begin to feel more than threatened – it’s like the dinosaurs can see the tar pits gaining ground, and they’re getting pretty pissed off about it.
So, we are seeing hate speech from the Bill O’Reillys and Rush Limbaughs leave the television/radio and get “taken to the streets.” Old white men have gone from raging against the world on Fox News; and talk radio; and in interviews (if you happen to be an old white man who used to be in Congress) to becoming old white men killing abortion doctors; and old white men marching into Holocaust Museums and opening fire.
Well, stuck-up, repressed, old white men, it’s time to get over it. The world is moving past you, quickly. In 2044, it is estimated that there’ll be more members of “Minority” groups than white people. Yep, blacks, and Hispanics, and Asians, and mixes of all these people and whites will make up the majority of the “good ‘ole US of A.” Yep, you’ll be a minority; gays will be allowed to marry; women’s right to choose will be an old argument; drugs will be legal and the U.S. will be much closer to Europe in terms of not being as uptight about sex and less religious.
That’s the way the world is going, but some old white people want a return to the 1950s, when repressed white people owned everything, blacks sat in the back of buses, Hispanics were invisible unless they were doing your gardening. Women were silent, and white men ruled the world, drinking martinis. For one thing, this world never existed except in the movies, and furthermore, it’s never going to occur.
Unless you plan to really start a plan to exterminate us, we’re not going anywhere. And besides, most of the old white men are cowards who like to send young men and women, often minorities to fight their wars for them while they sit on their asses, watch baseball and American Idol.
Old white men, eitehr you are a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Want to take over Arkansas and Kansas, wall yourselves off and pretend that it’s 1955? Go ahead. You believe that Texas is superior and should secede from the Union? Bye. The rest of us, along with the rest of the world are moving on without you. You won’t be missed.